Doré's Knights and Medieval Adventure

Gustave Doré, Jeff A. Menges

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780486138343
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Medieval Art

The exuberant art of Gustave Doré (1832–83) has influenced romantics and realists around the world. A self-taught child prodigy who met with early and resounding success, Doré ranks among the most prolific and popular illustrators of all time. Known as `the master of the fantastic,` he excelled in conveying dramatic action in memorable settings. This original collection assembles for the first time Doré's best work depicting knights and their adventures. It features eighty-six captivating scenes of battles, damsels, dragons, and other images from the Age of Chivalry.
Advances in science and technology introduced irrevocable changes to the society of Doré and his contemporaries and aroused a nostalgia for simpler times. The moral certitude and stability embodied in Arthurian myths and other medieval romances proved as appealing to Victorians as they do to modern audiences. This collection features highlights from eight volumes that span more than two decades of Doré's career, including scenes from Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Other sources include Don Quixote, Orlando Furioso, Rabelais' The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel, and Michaud's History of the Crusades.

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Note

They reached the lofty rock, where, at the summit, they beheld the king hanging thus helpless from the monster’s horns.

“Knight,” cried Jaufry to the corpse, “it grieves me not to know thy slayer, or whether thou wert wrong or whether right: thou art now dead; but if I can, I even will learn why, and by whose hand.”

“ Knight,” said Sir Jaufry, “thou dost press me sore” ...

The wood and iron for a cubit’s length pierced through the shoulder.

“Good friend,” he then apostrophized the knight, “the passage now may be considered safe.”...

“Halt, knight,” he cried, “I’ll have a word with thee.”

“Heaven,” Sir Jaufry cried, “in you I trust. What figure have we here?”

Sir Jaufry found himself with those two dames in a delicious land.

All the train which called Sir Melyan lord escorted back in triumph to Montbrun that happy pair

Large and rough was the battle, and both fought valiantly.

Therefore they all flee him like partridges from the vulture.

When...